The primary focus of the King-Drew Sickle Cell Center will be in the area of clinical research. Each department of the hospital has contributed one or more projects of this type to the comprehensive proposal, thus providing a multidisciplinary nature to it. Some of the principal clinical research projects presented herein, are the studies planned to determine the clinical significance of the heterozygous state in the surgical patient; study of the fetus with ultrasound techniques; determination of cranio-facial abnormalities in the dental patient with sickle cell disease; and assessment of the effects of prophylactic antibiotics on certain groups of sickle cell patients. The program also contains components involving basic research, such as the in vitro effect of phosphates on the sickling process; education, such as the nursing project to train the nurse-specialist in sickle cell disease; and community service, such as the standardized screening and counseling project which will be conducted by a medical geneticist. In addition, an in-depth epidemiological project centered in a data-base system is included and is expected to provide the data with which we can draw a profile of the person with sickle cell disease in our hospital catchment area. Finally, we are also developing an automated, computerized rapid electrophoresis system which will be field-tested at the King-Drew Sickle Cell Center.